Microwave detection of cancer

• Main Author: Chan, Ka Suet.
• Other Authors: Tan Soon Yim
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Antennas, wave guides, microwaves, radar, radio; DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Control and instrumentation::Medical electronics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/46000
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer found in women, excluding cases of non-melanoma skin cancer. Statistically, one woman in eight either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Early detection of breast cancer plays a crucial part as it aids administration of treatment and boost chances of surviving breast cancer, thus breast imaging has become increasingly important. However, there are shortfalls in the current techniques. Hence, development of alternative cancer diagnostic methods is explored. Microwave imaging for breast cancer is the focus of this project. This technique is based on detecting the dielectric contrast of cancerous tissues with respect to surrounding normal tissues. The proposed parallel-plate dielectric waveguide (PPDW) probe requires simple hardware and minimum operation expertise. In depth investigation on dielectric properties of self fabricated heterogeneous phantom were performed and used for experimental study. It is found that clutters which lie inside of the background material may affect the performance of the probe, depending on the amount of clutters present. Finite Integration Technique (FIT) based software was used to simulate the performance and characteristics of the PPDW under different setups.